no debt, no savings, no assets, just blah. HALP!

Red-Squirrel_2

lessavyfav wrote: »

And boring errands to do in the meantime, like working out what my boyfriend and I owe each other (first few months of moving into a place and trying to figure who owes what for paying different bills), Thames Water charged me twice, so getting on the phone to them and doing some tax stuff, which I hateeee with a passion.

Now that you're getting married, maybe a good time to sit down and have a good conversation about how you're going to manage your finances jointly and timescales for merging things.

Congratulations on the engagement, I think there's a weddings board on here somewhere so you may well find lots of tips to save on the big day.

lessavyfav

thank you Happier Me and Red-Squirrel, I am so happy about being engaged, I got a good egg with this one.

Yes, even before we were engaged we had discussed how we need to sort our finances to make sure we're both on the same track to buy a house..but it hasnt happened yet. This weekend might be the one to do it!

lessavyfav

Sat down over the weekend and did a 'You Need a Budget' type breakdown (not that I've got the app, but just read the principles behind it and think I can work it out from there).

So I've worked on 'buckets' which I hope will help me stick to a budget a bit better as of next payday (tomorrow). It works out monthly to:
- £796 for shared expenses with my boyfriend (rent, council tax, contents insurance, broadband, yearly travel insurance, water, energy and tv license)
- £26 phone
- £164 (monthly travel card for zone 1-3, £20 allowance for cabs per month if needed)
- £155 on hair/beauty/clothing etc. I think I can bring this down but I am allowing for the occasional wax or maybe special event if I treat myself to getting nails done, hair blowdried, etc.
- £505 lunches for work, going out for food, pubs, cinema and groceries. Ouch, seems like a lot! I will definitely try to bring the pub + going out for food down. Having said that I would much prefer to go out for a meal with friends than clothes shopping, etc. I also go out for dinners a lot less now that I am partnered up, I hate to think what I was spending when I was single!
- £158 charity/gifts/holidays. I SHOULD reduce gifts and holiday a bit but I don't think it's realistic to do so. I'm just going to work towards it and if I can keep to below, bonus.
- £685 savings, divided up into £85 emergency savings (have a feeling this might end up getting used to pay tax), £300 wedding savings and £300 personal savings which goes to a 6% account and will eventually be used for a house deposit hopefully.

Sooo...that brings to a total of £2489 per month. At the moment my salary is variable and I am looking for something more permanent, which means I would need to be on around £38,000 per year, slightly more than my last wage so not out of the question. I am currently on freelance day rate where I'm earning a lot more than that so I'm hoping to get ahead while I can. Really like the idea of YNAB, living on last month's pay so you're a move ahead - that's where I need to get to and what I'm working towards.

So, money saving things I've done lately:
- Planted some herbs. I am useless with plants but I really want this to work! So far I've done coriander and French parsley, looking to do basil, dill and chives when I get more pots.
- Not used my CC. I always pay my CC in full each month and thought that was a good thing, but have only just realised that spending £300-400 on my card each month and paying the next month puts me back - I could be putting that money elsewhere of course! So yes, this month I only used less than £10 on my card (as it is linked to my Uber cab account), and am going to aim to not use it at all moving forward.

I really do need to sit down with my boyfriend to discuss wedding budgets, and just general money stuff. We've been saying for a long time we'll look into joint accounts for our shared spendings, but still done nothing..and I do find myself usually paying for all the groceries because I do the food shop, stuff like that needs to be a bit more equal!

Jagraf

Do you have the time to get a second job? Bar work maybe? This could be your nights out too

Could local college students do your hair? Could you be a hair model for them?

eBay is not a pain, seriously even my 16 year old who spends hours looking in the mirror has 'found' ebay. She buys new, then sells when she's worn them about once

Stop competing, be yourself. You are old enough to realise that now

London threw me into debt in my twenties. I have cleared it now in my forties, and the interest I paid would have bought me a house. Purely because I wanted what everyone else was having. People I don't even know now. Get a grip x

PS growing your own herbs may save you bout £2 a year.

lessavyfav

Hm, okay Jagraf.

I work pretty long hours because of the type of job I do, so a second job is a no, unless it's extra freelance writing work which I do occasionally at the weekend. I earn okay money and don't live in a super fancy expensive place so I don't feel the need to work longer hours for a small amount of money. I do feel having time to unwind at home or being social with friends and loved ones is an important part of life, rather than working non-stop; not everyone will agree on that sort of thing, but we're all different.

Also, I have no debt! And we won't be getting a loan for the wedding. So I have a handle of that, it's just about trying to save for a wedding AND life. I think the little things are going to count for me.

Growing my herbs isn't going to make me a millionaire, but it will definitely save me more than £2 a year considering buying a pack of herbs is about 70-90p each..the seedlings and 3 pots were a gift, so I'm ahead already

lessavyfav

Another night in and no drinking..taking the entire week off alcohol and think I might try to continue it until next weekend when I have a wedding to go to...that will most certainly save me some ££.

Unfortunately, I owe a lot more tax than I thought I did. I don't have an official number as I want to go through everything with a fine tooth comb before I submit, but it isn't looking great as the umbrella company I used didn't deduct tax off 2 of my payments (out of the 3 times I used them!). That was the reason I signed up, so I wouldn't have to think about paying tax at the end of the year! I think it's going to be close to £1000

However this week I got paid a week's worth of salary from a job I started just over 3 weeks ago and put almost half of it aside. Next week I am hoping to put closer to 60% away (I have hardly any payments or major things coming out). A lot of that will go on what I owe HMRC no doubt, but I'll still be ahead with savings

Tomorrow night I am meeting up with a potential new job..it's somewhere I've wanted to work for a while and they're willing to take me on freelance for a short (undetermined) while, but ultimately I'd like to work there permanent. So fingers crossed I don't screw up! They seem like a truly great place to work, though I would be working my butt off!

Brightspark87

hi! congrats on your engagement Trust me you can do this wedding on a budget. I had a second hand dress that was remade for me and cost £950 all in.
You can do this! well done on coming back too x

lessavyfav

The weeks go by so quickly! I really thought I only updated this a week or so ago.

I have been super busy freelancing, although I think one of the jobs might take forever to pay me so I'll have to be super cautious with money for a bit.

This weekend is the engagement drinks, we're just getting everyone to meet as at a lovely pub, very casual. I would have liked to get a nice outfit for the night (and an upcoming wedding in Cornwall) as I haven't bought myself any clothes for months and always wear the same thing, but without having a job lined up, seems a bit frivolous..I also really don't like cheap things that fall apart, so going for something cheap and cheerful is just not worth it for me. So looks like I'll go without

I don't have anything lined up jobwise from the end of this week. I should be more stressed but I think a week can go by without working, I should be alright. I am trying to focus on a particular job and getting them to hire me so I need to focus on getting in front of them and wowing them. So far I've been squeezing their work in between jobs and it's not showing my abilities as well as it could.

Savings is going okay too, just plugging away what I can each week I get paid. I am really looking forward to a regular monthly salary though!

I am trying to cut down on alcohol consumption too, the boyfriend and I drink wine most days as a 'luxury' but it's obviously a bad habit costing us money. Would be good for me to cut down to only drinking at the weekend or perhaps 2 nights a week. We'll see! Summer comes along and that's when it really goes out the window!

lessavyfav

Is someone able to move this to debtfree diaries please?

lessavyfav

Well, a lot happened over the past few weeks. I had to go back to Australia as a family member passed away. I had no freelance work lined up so I was happy to go over and my parents are kindly paying me back for the cost of the flight. I was happy to pay for this myself as I am a Fully Grown Adult, but now that I am not working, I am relieved they're wiring me that money after all!

My boyfriend and I sat down at the weekend and opened a joint account/looked out our finances which is a big eye opener for him now that it's all transparent. It's unbelievable he doesn't already have a healthy nest egg, but he really wants a house and we have a wedding to save for so at least he has motivation now. I think once we start combining finances and keep seeing the amount of money grow, it's going to be satisfying.

I am not working but a few things in the pipeline. The freelance role I mentioned before that might be a perm role..I met with the company again and they want me to continue freelance and see how it goes.
But they don't have any definite work lined up so I'm kind of in a limbo which is frustrating (they just said something in the next couple of months). In the meantime I've been seeking other freelance jobs and come across a couple of other good perm jobs that I've applied for today. Fingers crossed as the bank account is depleting and knowing some of the people I work for, I won't get paid for a while.

I have been productive with filling my time though. Other than searching and applying for jobs, I'm getting all the life admin sorted, constantly cleaning the flat, getting into more cooking. But I feel like not having a job is a real killer as I don't feel I can do any planning for the future - can't get too excited about how much I'm going to save with nothing coming through. I am very grateful I have a tiny bit of savings and no debts, so I am not in the worst scenario, I should not complain!